2005 Carbon Black M3: Fall Detail

[GoCubsGo]

A big thanks to Phil at DD, Ivan at LUSTR, Kevin Brown, Greg at DI, the folks at AutoGeek and everyone else on this and other forums for helping me out with my endless questions. I`m a weekend warrior and have only been into this for about a year so the help is much appreciated.



History:

This is my personal ride (2005 Carbon Black M3). No major swirls or spider-webbing just the usual random scratches, a PITA out-gassing issue and a handfull of RIDS, which seemed to be on every other panel :wall. The goal was the paint correction and laying down the initial coat of 845. I still need to apply a couple more coats of 845 (Midwest winter coming), treat the exterior trim with Black Wow, etc.. Overall it was a successful weekend.



PROCESS:



Wash:

Meg`s Gold Class Shampoo (2 bucket method)

Flood rinse

Leaf Blower Dry



Clay:

Sonus Green with ONR clay lube



Polisher:

PC7424 (4" and 5.5" pads)



Polishes:

M105 or Menz PO83 as needed - LC Orange Pad

Menz P106FA on all panels (single pass) - LC White Pad

Menz PO87MC on all panels (single pass) - Uber Black Pad (this was my attempt to "jewel" the finish. Never tried this before and I`m not sure if I "officially" achieved a jeweled finish, but I really liked the end result after a uniform pass with PO87MC on a non-cutting pad).



Final Surface Prep:

Menzerna Final Inspection (MFI) on all panels. This was my first time using MFI and it took some getting used to, but once I had my technique down I absolutely loved it. After a final wipe down with MFI the finish was beyond ready for my LSP, extremely clean and unbelievably squeaky (much more than IPA IMO). A little MFI goes a long way and I am sold.



LSP:

Collinite 845 - Uber Black Pad (speed 2.5-3)

Applied twice back-to-back just to ensure full coverage. I`ll be adding additional coats with the proper 24 cure time within the next couple weeks. I bounced back and forth on my LSP for the Midwest winter (FMJ, JS109, FK1000P, UPGP, etc.). After a ton of research and all was said and done I opted for 845, hope I made the right choice.



Other:

Tires are dressed with Optimum Opt-Bond Tire Gel.

Wheels hit with FK425 (just for the pix ;)).





The Lineup:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/Lineup.jpg



Clay:

The majority of the panels had minimal contamination, but the lower panels behind the wheels were a different story as expected (don`t ask me why the Sonus Green looks yellow in the picture because I have no idea).

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/Clay.jpg



Dust:

M105 and Menz PO83Q do the job, but they do leave a nice amount of dust behind. I "kind of" used the KB method (4" orange pad, a little extra product & pressure) to cleanup the RIDS so that might explain some of the heavy dusting, but worth it on all accounts. It worked like magic.

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/Dust.jpg







A Couple Pre/Post Correction Shots:



Out Gas Issue:

3 months ago I made a mistake trying to apply a chip repair to my hood. The mistake: Within 7 days of applying a new coat of sealant and wax I taped off an area on my hood and then hit it with IPA . This ended up causing an "out-gassing" outline (see 1st picture). I tried to clean it up with M105 a couple days later, but nothing, it was still there. Given my ride is parked in an underground garage and sits in high humidity 23 hours a day I guess it just took some time to "air" out. 3 months later it took just one pass with M105 on a 4" pad and the eye sore was finally gone. Kevin Brown was a huge help on the techinque and Ivan helped me out with a paint reading to make sure I still had enough clear to work with, so props to KB and Ivan.



Out-Gas Damage:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Spring%20Detail%20M3/TapeDamageII.jpg



Out-Gas Damage Corrected:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-OutGas.jpg



Repaint Issue:

After a fender bender (it happened while my ride was in a driveway, long story and this post is already becoming a novel) the left door was repainted in the spring. The repair shop didn`t clean everything up properly, but a single pass with Menz PO83 cleaned it right up.



Repair Damage Issue:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/RepairedIssue.jpg



Repair Damage Issue Corrected:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/RepairedIssueFixed.jpg





Random RIDS:

Bootlid RIDS:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/PRE-BootlidRIDS.jpg



Bootlid RIDS Corrected:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/BootlidRIDSFixed.jpg





The Final Results:

It was windy as heck outside so some polish dust made it`s way into a few shots and sorry for my ugly mug showing up on one of the pix :scared:.



Overall Outside:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-Fulloutside.jpg



Roof (inside):

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-RoofinsideI.jpg



Roof (outside):

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-RoofoutsideI.jpg



Hood (outside) I:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-HoodoutsideI.jpg



Hood (outside) II:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-Hoodoutside.jpg



Bootlid (inside):

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-BootlidinsideI.jpg



Bootlid (outside):

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-BootlidoutsideI.jpg



Right Door (inside):

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-RightDoorinsideI.jpg



Right Door (outside):

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-RightDooroutsideII.jpg



Left Door (inside):

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-LeftDoorinsideI.jpg



Left Door (outside):

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-LeftDooroutsidesp.jpg



Final Overalls:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-FulloutsideII.jpg

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-FulloutsideI.jpg

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv248/trudnick/2009%20Fall%20Detail/AFTER-Noseoutside.jpg

[jsilas]

Fantastic job! Like you, I`m a weekender who just loves doing this stuff. It looks like you`ve got a good knack for it already.



Beautiful car, and great work.

[imported_artikxscout]

congrats on your detail. it looks great, that car is a real blast to work with, SIP works especially well with that clear.

[GoCubsGo]

Fantastic job! Like you, I`m a weekender who just loves doing this stuff. It looks like you`ve got a good knack for it already.



Beautiful car, and great work.



Thanks for the compliments. Do your friends, family and neighbors think you`re as nuts as mine do? At least my GF gets it. She`s picking up a "new to her" 2009 BMW 335i xDrive (metallic black) this weekend, so I have a new project ;).




congrats on your detail. it looks great, that car is a real blast to work with, SIP works especially well with that clear.



Thanks! I`ve done a couple E46`s and have had great success with SIP.

[FastEddysDetail]

Great work!! How do you like the micro polish i just ordered some.

[GoCubsGo]

Great work!! How do you like the micro polish i just ordered some.



Thanks! I like the Micro Polish, being a weekend warrior I just wanted to give a finishing polish a try with a non-cutting pad. I don`t know if I officially jeweled the finish, but I liked the end result, the extra time and effort was worth it. Lots of lubricant in the Micro Polish, but the MFI cleaned it all up and it was the cleanest "ready for LSP" finish I`ve ever achieved (in my limited experience).

[Kevin Brown]

A happy ending. Whew! :woot:



Very glad to see you got rid of the eyesore. I`ll bet you are proud of yourself!



Oftentimes TIME is your friend. Great job on doing things yourself, too! Yay!:woohoo:



Thorough write-up. They do take a while to do.

[b2matt]

Thanks for the compliments. Do your friends, family and neighbors think you`re as nuts as mine do? At least my GF gets it. She`s picking up a "new to her" 2009 BMW 335i xDrive (metallic black) this weekend, so I have a new project ;).







Thanks! I`ve done a couple E46`s and have had great success with SIP.





I know my neighbors think I`m nuts just washing my cars:confused: I`ve never seen anyone on my street even wash their cars:think: ....and I know they aren`t getting pros to do it.



Great work! I love M3`s:2thumbs:

[tssdetailing]

that looks great! sucks you have to run the front lic plate

[tecster]

Posts like this are the reason I want to get into detailing, I want every car on the planet to look like a mirror, I want perfection. I want it all... This car looks SPECTACULAR and I am wow`ed.



Great job. Love the car, love the detail, love the work. Keep it up.

[JackalS4]

Very nice ride to begin with, E46 M3`s are great. Carbon black too...nice. Correction looks great, and the reflection shots.



So, for the out-gas issue, what really caused it? Was it the tape and/or pulling it, or the IPA wiping etc? That looked pretty bad and i`d be nervous if I couldn`t correct something like that with M105 right away...! :nervous2:

[GoCubsGo]

Very nice ride to begin with, E46 M3`s are great. Carbon black too...nice. Correction looks great, and the reflection shots.



So, for the out-gas issue, what really caused it? Was it the tape and/or pulling it, or the IPA wiping etc? That looked pretty bad and i`d be nervous if I couldn`t correct something like that with M105 right away...! :nervous2:





Thanks for the compliments.



Here`s a link that discussed the outgas issue. Initially I thought it was tape residue, but after trying every solvent possible it became obvious that it was not adhesive and it was an outgas.



http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/121729-tape-residue-issue.html.



When I tried my initial pass with M105 way back after it first happened I was very, very cautious. The pass was very brief with pretty much little to no pressure. I just wanted to see if a quick pass with the M105 might clean it up, but didn`t want to push it. Time did the trick....finally :2thumbs:.

[imported_NRZ]

I love M3`s and this black is beautiful. A coat of PS would just be the cats meow on this thing!!



And from one enthusiast to another, your directional tires are on backwards. Very dangerous, just letting you know.

[GoCubsGo]

I love M3`s and this black is beautiful. A coat of PS would just be the cats meow on this thing!!



Thanks, I`ll top with some Pete`s 53 for a final pop before winter sets in




And from one enthusiast to another, your directional tires are on backwards. Very dangerous, just letting you know.



FYI The tires are Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas and are not on backwards. They are asymmetrical, but not directional. Appreciate you looking out for other enthusiasts, but if I were to have my tires mounted incorrectly I would have no business driving an M.

[GoCubsGo]

...

And from one enthusiast to another, your directional tires are on backwards. Very dangerous, just letting you know.



The tires are Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas and are not on backwards. They are asymmetrical, but are not directional.